Tolulope Adepena, a design and building construction expert, and the CEO of Pennak Nigeria Limited, a provider of innovative infrastructure projects and services, has designed and built many commercial, residential buildings, including hospitals and malls.
In this interview with Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha, he harps on the need for sustainability in tackling Nigeria’s housing crisis, frequent building collapse, among other issues. Excerpt.
What inspired you into building construction?
What inspired me was the fact that we have a lot of engineers and developers who overcharge and under deliver. So, I am trying to bridge the gap whereby we can deliver something worth the budget to a client within the construction industry in Nigeria. Also because we have had serious cases of building collapse in this country, and a lot of people would say that most of the building experts cut corners. We want to correct that.
Do you think that cheap materials are the reasons for building collapse?
I don’t think building materials are cheap. I just feel like they don’t follow building regulations, and that is the problem. Most of the materials supplied in the country are well tested, so I think that by not following the regulations, they are adding more flaws to projects. So, we must avoid such kinds of problems. Also, we have some old buildings and many others in the country that are supposed to be demolished.
How many years do you think a house should last?
It depends on the substructure. Some are built to last for a while, and some are to last for about 25 to 30 years. It depends on the engineer and what they used for the substructure.
Can you tell us the major landmark project that your company has executed?
I have been in this business for 10 years. My company, Pennak Nigeria Limited, has been here for seven years. We have done a series of landmark projects. We have the interior design part of our company that does designs for fashion stores, we have our construction projects that are on along the Lekki-Epe Expressway at the moment. We have some landmark projects in Abuja, we have worked with GTBank, Alat by Wema Bank, among others.
What layers of professionalism do you put in place in your projects?
For execution of projects, we have the project manager, who is the main man on the site. We have subcontractors who handle the mechanical, electrical and plumbing part of each project. We also have our interior designers, who position the project from the scratch, paying attention to every detail. We also have the site managers, safety regulatory compliance and security in place.
What are your major mandates and deliverables to clients on building projects?
We have worked in about eight states in Nigeria. Let’s talk about working in Lagos. So, you just need to have your land and your documents in place. They try to expect functionality in projects. We are accountable to that aspect, making sure that each segment of the project functions properly, following the expectations of what you have proposed to them in the first place. Our interior designers make sure that the functionality goes in line with the beauty of the place.
What is your approach to ensuring customer satisfaction and key things that attract your customer to you?
At Pennak, we call it 4E’s —Expectation, Education, Elementary design, and Execution. We understand the client’s expectations based on the purpose of their structure. We educate the clients on the realities of what they can achieve. We develop the elementary design, which gives you a thorough walkthrough. We call it elementary design because it is subject to change during the final stage
For patronage, I will mention our detailing, good communication skills with our clients, and also the delivery. We work with elementary designs where we give our clients proper walk-through of what their expectations should be.
What advice do you give clients on building projects?
They need to do their background checks and the right company to work with, depending on their capacity, and what to work with. This is very important because some companies do not have the right team to execute the project for you. It is also vital to procure most of the materials that will be needed for the project before commencing the project.
How do you cope with the high cost of materials and inflationary pressure?
The high cost of materials affects construction projects. Sometimes, we buy most of our materials down before commencing projects because there are very important items. So, when our clients are in need, we resell for the old price, not the current price.
We have our teams, accountants, and people that can foresee. We have our storage where our clients can buy items at affordable prices, which help to facilitate the execution of projects.
What are the amenities that you prioritise in your housing development?
Good road for accessibility is very important. Power and water are also vital. They are the most important amenities, as they engineer the whole house, and make it very functional, especially if it is a commercial project.
What are the challenges of real estate and how can the government address them?
Inflation is the major challenge and has caused some level of delays in projects. There is no stable price, and it is really hindering development as well.
The government can partner with construction companies like ours to give advice, sustainability, and a better approach to building houses in Nigeria, seeing that we have a beautiful vision for the future of the country.
What is the vision of Pennak and future plans?
The mission is to remain a company of integrity; a company that the client can always trust as they have been trusting us for the past years, and also keeping sustainability to world standards. Talking about our vision, at Pennak, we consider innovation greatly and also a relief factor to culture, and gender inequality. We don’t care about gender or skin colour, we are interested in the skills.
My future plans are quite broad. We would like to expand and spread our reach to other African countries. We are trying to build something different in another dimension.
In what way has Pennak affected lives in seven years of its operation?
At Pennak, we prioritize people, and we do not take lightly the impact we have in all the lives we touch. We make sure that our client needs are satisfied, even before the clients know they have them, with our fully immersive and ergonomically positive designs. At the end of every project, we make sure that we impact the host community of the project with our Community Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. We did a commercial project at Akoka in Yaba in Lagos, and also one at Owerri in Imo State.
What is your academic background?
Growing up was mostly in the western part of Nigeria. I had my primary school education in Ogun State and secondary education at Mercy College in Ogun State. I studied Electrical Engineering at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), and proceeded after a while to acquire my MBA from London Metropolitan School of Business in the UK.
Apart from your work, do you have time for family?
Yes, I do. It is God first, and then family. I have to be healthy, and also create time for watching football, that is my hobby. I also read and study a lot of things because I like to know how to make things possible, and how to achieve things.
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